Susan Olsen

By Grief Transformed

Dreams and the Mourning Process

275 pages, ISBN 978-1-882670-77-2

In her first year of training at the C.G. Jung Institute (Zurich), Susan Olson suffered the loss of her college-age daughter in a hit-and-run auto accident. By Grief Transformed describes her journey through mourning, guided by a series of vivid and startling dreams. Jung's definition of the dream as "a harbinger of fate, a portent and comforter, the messenger of the gods" evolves from academic theory into embodied insight in this chronicle of one woman's encounter with the transforming power of grief. From personal story, this book expands to include premonitory and grief dreams of other mourners, dreams cited in Jung's memoirs, and selections from mythology and literature. Classical and contemporary writers provide their unique perspectives, and illustrations from ancient and modern art enhance the text. On the archetypal level, the Greek myth of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone evokes the universal and timeless experience of loss and renewal in the crucible of grief. The dreams and stories recounted in this book, together with some provocative hints from Jung's work, suggest that death may usher us through the open door into a world beyond time and space. Dreams of the dead comfort the bereaved, offer tantalizing glimpses of the "hereafter," and deepen our reverence for the eternal mystery of death and rebirth.